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"I miss the mistletoe. Will these lips e'er be kissed again?"
It was a question Thomas had asked himself before, yet not out loud to the others until right now. The reactions of his family ranged from eye rolling (Fanny) to a small chuckle (Pat) to mysterious (the back of Alison’s head), but the reaction he was most interested in was the Captain's. His gaze had, for a moment, dropped to Thomas's lips.
After Thomas blinked, the moment was gone. The Captain's eyes were focused on Kitty as she reminisced about Christmas presents.
Thomas let his mind wander from the discussion. Did the Captain want to kiss Thomas, was that why he had looked at Thomas’s lips? Or had Thomas imagined it all and it was simply wishful thinking?
(Because Thomas had been wishfully thinking about what it would be like to kiss the Captain, for quite some time now.)
The Captain clearly sensed Thomas looking at him, as he suddenly turned his head to look right back at Thomas, meeting his eyes. Thomas blushed and looked away, flustered by the fact that the Captain had caught him staring at him while thinking about kissing him.
Thomas continued to behave in such an embarrassing manner over the course of the day whenever the Captain looked at him, or spoke to him – blushing and looking anywhere but at the Captain's lips. It was very uncharacteristic of Thomas, but he was quite out of his depth with the Captain.
He was used to openly wooing a person like he did with Alison, reciting poetry or telling her how beautiful she was. He was a believer in grand gestures and romance, and loved to shower those things on the people he fell for. None of that involved blushing and looking away.
Thomas got the feeling those methods would not work on the Captain. He would have to be subtle, and he was as inexperienced in this as he’d been as a young lad: unsure of his words and easily flustered.
The problem was that being subtle was as far from Thomas's forte as it was possible to get. He was hoping that his best attempts at subtlety and the Captain’s ability to completely miss the obvious would balance each other out, and succeed in a) not causing the Captain to run for the hills, and b) kissing.
After having all day to ponder how he might approach the subject, his chance came late on Christmas Eve. The living were turning in for the night, and the dead who had not already gone to bed were contemplating doing the same. The Captain hovered in the doorway as he waited for Pat, and Thomas slipped himself between the Captain and the doorframe so they were both positioned under the mistletoe.
"Wait here with me until the others leave?" Thomas asked quietly, and the Captain looked down at him (he was so tall ) before nodding his assent. Thomas was too nervous to fill the air with his usual chatter, so the two fell into a companionable silence instead.
The others faffed around a bit, saying their goodnights and hugging each other (the living) and wrapping up an earlier argument about the best flavour of ice cream (the dead). Strawberry, according to Pat, and chocolate, according to Julian. Robin and Mary had been lounging (by the fire, and far from the fire respectively), uninterested due to having no concept of ice cream.
Eventually the living filed out of the room, and Thomas and the Captain stepped aside to let them through. Alison turned back to whisper a quick goodnight to Thomas and the Captain, and Mike raised the hand that wasn’t holding Alison’s to wave in the wrong direction. Mary and Robin went next, followed by Pat and Julian, whose continuing argument the Captain briefly interrupted to inform Pat that they could talk tomorrow instead of later.
Thomas waited for their voices to fade to ensure he and the Captain were truly alone, then Thomas gently pulled the Captain back to the doorway, back under the mistletoe. He had spent all day coming up with ways to confess to the Captain, but now that he was here in the moment, every single idea he’d had was gone.
"So," Thomas said slowly, then he raised an eyebrow, remembering the plan to be a little more flirtatious with the Captain than usual. How much did the Captain suspect, he wondered? Did he have an idea of what Thomas wanted to do, or had this all gone over his head so far?
Based on the Captain still being present, and not halfway to the lake, Thomas felt certain that he had no idea of what Thomas wanted. So Thomas took a deep breath, readying himself to confess. The Captain spoke first, providing a natural opening to the conversation Thomas wanted to have.
"No luck kissing Alison under the mistletoe, then?" The Captain asked, and Thomas coughed and shook his head.
"No, no – it’s probably for the best though, because..." He looked directly at the Captain. "There's someone else I'd like to kiss a lot more."
"More than Alison?" The Captain asked, surprised, and Thomas chuckled.
"I know I do go on about Alison, but I am a man of the heart. I'm more than capable of holding affection for more than one person at a time," Thomas explained. He shuffled closer to the Captain until they were almost touching. "Out of respect for the person I wish to kiss, who is a dear friend of mine, I have kept my affections much quieter."
"Right then. That, er, makes sense." The Captain said, then paused, as if waiting for Thomas to speak again. When he didn't, the Captain huffed.
"Well, who is it then?" He asked Thomas impatiently. That the Captain was interested enough to ask who it was boded very well for Thomas and his intentions.
"I'll let you figure it out.” Thomas said, then hesitated, biting his lip as he geared himself up to carry on. “I won't lie, I have already made my move.” He placed a hand on the Captain’s arm, and the Captain’s attention was now entirely on him. Thomas found he very much liked that, and preened under his gaze.
"Oh?" Asked the Captain, looking a bit put out.
Thomas smiled. "Oh yes," he said quietly. "I've pulled him aside, under the mistletoe, and told him there's someone I'd like to kiss. I'm just waiting for him to catch up."
The Captain's face was a sight to behold, and Thomas watched raptly as the cogs turned. The moment the Captain put two and two together, his jaw fell open and his eyes snapped up to meet Thomas's gaze. Thomas's smile widened.
"You can't mean– you're not telling me that– it's not me , is it?" The Captain stammered, eyes wide, and Thomas slid his hand up the Captain’s arm to grip his shoulder.
"Like I said, I'm just waiting for him to catch up," Thomas said patiently, despite screaming internally at the Captain to just kiss him already.
After what felt like an eternity, but was in fact no longer than ten seconds, the Captain seemed to have caught up and processed the information, because suddenly he looked at Thomas. Really looked at him, in a way that left Thomas feeling a bit vulnerable, actually.
Thomas looked back.
The Captain leaned his head down and closed the distance between their mouths, capturing Thomas's lips in a hesitant kiss. Thomas sighed happily, immediately reaching his hand up to cup the back of the Captain’s neck. He deepened the kiss slowly, trying not to startle the other man with how much he wanted this.
It was all a bit awkward; it had been hundreds of years since Thomas had last kissed someone, and he wasn't much experienced even in life. And yet, it was still a lovely kiss. The best one Thomas had ever had.
The Captain pulled back a few moments later, bright red, mumbling something so quietly that it just sounded like an odd noise. Thomas simply stood there beaming at him until he tried again, speaking louder this time. "Was that alright?"
"Oh, it was more than alright. It was even better than I ever dreamed it would be," he confessed, still holding the back of the Captain's neck. He stroked his thumb over the skin there, and the Captain breathed in sharply, his hand tightening on Thomas's waist – and when had it gotten there? Thomas had been so distracted, he'd missed it.
"Good," the Captain said. "I, er, don't have much in the way of experience, so…" He looked away from Thomas then. Thomas slid his hand back from the Captain's neck to cup his face, gently turning the Captain's head until he was looking at him again.
"Nor do I," Thomas said honestly. "But I'd still very much like to do it again?"
The Captain smiled, a real smile that made his eyes crinkle at the corners. “Your wish is my command,” he mumbled, and leaned in again.